Time to upgrade my years old Marantz cheapo CD player, which works fine but sounds horrid compared to my server/DAC and turntable front ends. Even feeding the player's output into my $3500 DAC it still doesn't sound great. Understood everything is relative and more money buys better sound, but is there anything around the $500 price point that sounds at least moderately "high end"? I’d consider used as well as new.

@jaybe - Cambridge Audio CXC transport. It's $499 at various large internet/mail order retailers. It has standard coax and toslink outputs and should work with any DAC that has those inputs. Maybe buy it from one of the retailers that has a solid return policy so you can return it if it doesn't meet your needs.

How about all those CD network players --- streams music / internet radio while capable of playing CD? Tascam CD240's specification looks interesting ($400 MSRP). Onkyo has one too about an hundred more.

I am not so sure if UPnP is a good cup of tea for media serving, however, especially if the library is massive. Any idea and suggestion?

I think these days you can get real good cd sound at that price point. Marantz has some well reviewed players around that price and the Yamahas are quite good as well. The Cambridge players are respectable too. I never owned an NAD player but I see some recommendations above. Used will stretch your $$ as well.

If I enjoyed the sound of my server/DAC and wanted to stay close to the sound of it (and at $3500 I would want to use it), and I have a budget of $500, then I would purchase the Cambridge CXC transport.

@jl35Would you say that the CXC allows the "native" sound of the DAC in use to come through? In other words, does the Simaudio still sound like the Simaudio, and the Hegel also like itself? Or does the transport impart its own sound signature on top of the DACs'?

I have seen some opinions that Cambridge CD players in general can accentuate the higher frequencies (not necessarily meaning bright, or to exaggerate). Not sure, if this is true, that this same tendency might show in a transport as well, even though it's using an external DAC.

In any case the CXC has my interest at this point and I'll be researching this a bit more.

I have seen audible differences from transports that sound bright/harsh and other that are natural or laid back, and even others that are strong but neutral.

The idea is that you want the transport to have a very good linear power supply and use a clock that presents the smallest amount of jitter in the digital line. Also, choosing a really good COAX digital cable is crucial here as well. Look for silver/silver-plated. Maybe the DH Labs or something similar (use Beldon 1694A from Blue Jean Cable as a bare minimum).

The Oppo is actually a nice transport for a bluray or Universal Player mechanism. I have certainly heard worse! However, like all bluray players, it has to play media at any number of different rates. The Oppo has 2 clocks, a 20Mhz HDMI transceiver clock and a 27Mhz CPU clock. For PCM on hdmi/coax output, it has to do integer math against the 27Mhz clock to "estimate" the proper pulse speeds for stuff like 44.1Khz CD formats. It’s not too terribly bad, but it’s not perfect.

If you just want to play CD format, I would stick to a dedicated "CD Only" transport, like the Cambridge Audio CXC, which will use a clock that is an exact multiplier of the 44.1Khz sampling rate of CDs. Even the Emotiva ERC-3 will be a good transport because of the CD clock. I think the Emotiva will use a 22.05Mhz clock if they keep the same design as their XDA-2 DAC (direct multiplier of 44.1, i.e. 44.1 / 2 = 22.05).

@jaybe - Audio Advisor currently has the Cambridge CXC transport on sale for $450 and they have a 30 day return policy. You could try the Cambridge transport and send it back if you don't love it. You would only be out the return shipping. Sounds like a pretty inexpensive experiment to me.

I think shardorne is making a valid point. If I were running my old CDP through a high quality a la $3500 DAC and was still unhappy with the outcome, the chances are a <$500 transport will not address the root cause. I agree with ordering from a vendor with a return policy to test this hypothesis. In my case a much more moderately priced DAC made my old and tired CDP to sound much better.

I think we need verification from jaybe on how he is comparing his Marantz to other components. The way he is describing his system, I assume that he is using the Marantz as a transport and sending a digital signal to his $3500 DAC. He also seems to have a media server that is doing digital output to the same $3500 DAC -- which appears to sound better as a transport.

One thing jaybe could try is to rip a CD into his "server" (if he actually has a media server transport) and compare that to just the Marantz as a transport. If the media server transport is superior, then we have proved that the Marantz is a very poor transport (which could be the case if the Marantz is very old).

It's not entirely clear though whether he is looking for a CD Transport or a CD player with an analog output. Maybe jaybe can clarify this? We have all been suggesting transports only. If he's looking for an analog CD player, then the suggestions will be completely different (thinking Jolida or something similar here).

@shadorne No the DAC is fine, I use it everyday with my server. But thanks. See you later.

@auxinput I have compared many ripped CDs played through the server to the same CDs played in the Marantz, with the results I mention. I did originally specify a player, and many responded with suggestions- NAD, Yamaha etc. I had not considered a transport but am now.

That's great. For $500, it is unlikely that you will find an analog-output CD player that can be better than your $3500 DAC. However, if you look for a transport to feed into your DAC, it is possible that it may be better than your server (or at least be equal to your server).

From my experience regular cd player isn’t good as a transport to standalone dac,my suspicion is that the inner dac of the cdp and the analog inner cycle interfering the transmission of the pure digital data out and if so preventing your dac to fulfill is full potential .The best way to go is a dedicated cd transport such as the CA CXC and if you are willing to spend more the Cyrus CDt is excellent option too.I bought the CXC to my Mcintosh amplification and the improvement was huge:more details,huge soundstage, powerful dynamics and better transparency.You should use a good coax cable too.

Depending on your philosophy about power sources / supplies, one key advantage is it’s acceptance of DC power. Many folks will invest in expensive power cables to improve sound quality. Others prefer linear power supplies which easily compete with power cables on price. A third option which would be (and may end up being) my personal choice, would be to partner it with an off-grid power supply such as the one that Vinnie Rossi offers.

@jaybe honestly, just not many viable options at $500 for your taste. I have a 5k Dac the Resonessence Mirus Pro and because it has such great sound quality I found it difficult to find a transport that I could use and spend just a little money on that sounded like I wanted. I actually ended purchasing a parasound cd1 for my cds. I just think at $500 you won't get what you want I think the 1500 range may get you some better options.

@jaybe honestly, just not many viable options at $500 for your taste. I have a 5k Dac the Resonessence Mirus Pro and because it has such great sound quality I found it difficult to find a transport that I could use and spend just a little money on that sounded like I wanted. I actually ended purchasing a parasound cd1 for my cds. I just think at $500 you won't get what you want I think the 1500 range may get you some better options.

Why lock into playing only one format? All that techie math behind the scenes is splitting ear hairs.. I love going from an SACD to DVD-A or Bluray audio and back again, and the convenience of playing 192/24 from a front or rear loading USB drive is very handy.........besides all this, it sounds GOOD! ...and like other Cambridge audio gear in my rig, they are both made in China ....

I've had a couple under $500 CD players over the last few years. Hands down the best one in my system was the Emotiva ERC-3, especially when using the balanced outputs. I enjoyed my Marantz and Yamaha, but the Emotiva was a big step up.

I run a Cambridge CXC transport into a Remedy re locker and then to my Audio Note 2.1 DAC. The CXC directly to the DAC sounded good but with the Remedy added the sound is excellent. The great thing about this solution is the Remedy can be added later as funds allow.

+1 just get a reclocker - if Jaybe’s DAC can’t handle the jitter from a cheap CD player or simply the inherent jitter in master clock signal passed down from any CD player then a reclocker might fix the problem.

Kind of illogical to get a reclocker because the DAC can’t handle jitter but if you really love the sound of your DAC then this might be the best solution...personally I don't like band aids (using extra stuff to fix faulty gear)

I'm surprised that Rega got only one mention out of this group. Rega used to be known to make great players at a decent price point. I've had a Rega Planet for two decades and - though my LP collection dwarfs my CD collection - it's still going strong.

In future, I think the money best spent will be on the transport, perhaps even a DAC-less one). I love the "upside-down" xport in my HHB CDR 850 player/recorded, and just co-ax it out to the DAC-of-the-month. I got the HHB off Fleabay for $300 used and it's never hiccuped. Rega was the last to build a truly high-quality transport/DAC combo, but you couldn't out-source the DAC for other uses, unfortunately.

I second the rega, from what I remembered the appolo or the planet bested the Nad. My last digital source was a musical Fidelity dad and a PC, it was surprisingly detailed and musical. But if I were going for a cdp for 500 bucks I'd be checking on the rega, exposure, or perhaps an older proceed.